The Leyland brothers were an English-born Australian duo of explorers and documentary filmmakers, consisting of Michael James "Mike" Leyland, MBE (4 September 1941 – 14 September 2009) and Malcolm Rex "Mal" Leyland, MBE (born 2 October 1944).

The Leylands were best known for their popular television show, Ask the Leyland Brothers, which aired from 1976 to 1980 and 1983 to 1984. Through their exploits the brothers introduced many Australians to the sights of the Australian outback. Mike would later attend Wallsend Public School. The brothers grew up watching documentaries by Armand and Michaela Denis.

When aged 15, Mike won a trip to the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne from a cartoon-drawing competition, and his father bought him a 16mm movie camera to take along. The teenage brothers would later use the camera to film themselves and their friends as they explored outback New South Wales.

The show became extremely successful, and at its height attracted 2.5 million viewers an episode, which was about 40% of the audience at the time. The Leylands became famous celebrities, with viewers often recognising the brothers and their wives as they scouted for locations, sometimes forcing them to go incognito.

A documentary series called Leyland Brothers' World followed in the late 1980s. Rather than viewers writing in and asking the Leyland brothers to visit a particular place in Australia, it focused on exploration by the Leyland brothers and their families around Australia in a double-decker bus.

Leyland Brothers World theme park, bankruptcy and split

right|thumb|The Rock Roadhouse and Uluru replica, formerly of Leyland Brothers World, in May 2014, when it was being used as a petrol station and fast food centre. The roadhouse and replica burnt down in 2018.

Although the continued success of their films and television series made the brothers wealthy, they made efforts to spread out their business interests by investing in property and looked to leverage their name in the hospitality and tourism sector.

Despite an estimated annual attendance of about 400,000 people, in July 1992 BDO Nelson was appointed receiver and manager of the park when the Leylands failed to meet their loan commitments to the Commonwealth Bank. The theme park was sold to new owners in November 1992 for $800,000, The brothers went bankrupt.

The failure of Leyland Brothers World as well as personal tensions that simmered in the years beforehand led to a personal and professional rift between the two brothers and they went their separate ways, dissolving their 31-year filmmaking partnership. Contrary to media speculation that they weren't on speaking terms, in the years afterwards the brothers still saw each other regularly, and even shared information about their new independent television projects on rival networks. The series of documentaries were later released on DVD under the title Travel All Over The Countryside. On 14 September 2009, Mike Leyland died from Parkinson's disease; he was 68 years old. Mal had met with his brother shortly before he died, suggesting that they go on one last adventure.

Mal and his wife Laraine ran a photo processing lab in Queensland and in 1997 launched a bi-monthly travel magazine, Leyland's Australia. Mal and Laraine have also written travel stories for ROAM magazine, a number of novels and cookbooks, and in 2015, Mal published his memoirs, entitled Still Travelling. Laraine died on 22 November 2018 in Tasmania aged 75. and as of 2021 contributes to The Camping & Off Road Radio Show. In 2023 he announced plans to film a project with daughter Carmen.

In 2019 Mal Leyland received the Lifetime of Adventure award from Australian Geographic.

References

  • Mike Leyland was an Inspiration